Treating Chronic Depression: Psychotherapy and Medication

Depressive illness often becomes chronic or recurrent, and patients may recover only partially. Despite all the new and effective drugs, at least 25 to 35 percent of patients with clear-cut mood disorders do not respond in a satisfactory way even though there can be some relief of symptoms. These chronically ill patients can be identified by careful examination and are characterized by what Badal calls a “predicament.” The predicament is caused by a combination of two factors: an intolerabl...